Chris Teja interviews Jack McLean about his new memoir, Loon, a first-person account of his long and unpredictable journey from confused teenager to Marine to, finally, student at Harvard University.

The following is an excerpt from Loon: A Marine Story, Jack McLean’s memoir about joining the Marine Corps in the mid-sixties. Be sure to check out Chris Teja’s interview with McLean.
Chapter One
June 6, 1968.
It had already been a long day, and dawn had yet to break.
On his hands and knees, Bill Matthews scampered up over [...]

Rebecca Touger interviews Danzy Senna, author of Where Did You Sleep Last Night? Senna’s memoir is an account of a childhood complicated by divorce and racial identity, and of a search through both sides of her family’s history for answers.

The following is the opening passage from Danzy Senna’s Where Did You Sleep Last Night: A Personal History. The memoir chronicles her family’s history and their complicated racial identities. And be sure to read Rebecca Touger’s interview with Senna.
In 1975 my mother left my father for the last time. We fled to Guilford, Connecticut. It [...]

Ramen enthusiast Ty Wenger talks to Andy Raskin about his new memoir, The Ramen King and I, a book that’s about much more than instant noodles.

The following is the preface from The Ramen King and I: How the Inventor of Instant Noodles Fixed My Love Life. And be sure to read Ty Wenger’s interview with author Andy Raskin.
“It is said that real human nature reveals itself under extreme conditions. As I starved in prison, I realized that eating was one [...]

Satirist Joe Queenan finds a lot of things funny, but not his childhood. He grew up poor in the projects, where his alcoholic father was better at beating his children than holding down a steady job. Queenan talks about his new memoir, Closing Time.

Humorist Joe Queenan turns a serious eye to his childhood in his new memoir, Closing Time. He writes about his abusive, alcoholic father and growing up poor in Irish Catholic Philadelphia. This week, he spoke with Adam Rose about the memoir, and you can read an excerpt from the opening chapter below.
Chapter 1. The Man [...]

Stripper-turned-”Juno” screenwriter Diablo Cody talks with stripper-turned-Army wife Lily Burana about her new memoir, I Love a Man in Uniform.

“Regardless of her motive, when a wife shields herself from controversy, the strength of her buttressing is bulldog tough. It’s not a Green Curtain. Sweetie, it’s a brick wall.”
The ramifications of vowing “for better or for worse” in a military marriage are heightened—I’m attached, by law and in spirit, to my husband, and by association, [...]